26 weeks paid parental leave the best Mother’s Day present

“As New Zealand prepares to celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, John Key should remove his threat to veto Labour's initiative for 26 weeks paid leave which has majority support in Parliament.

“Public submissions in favour of the Labour proposal nearly doubled since a similar Bill was considered in 2014. This time 6755 submissions were sent and 99.94 per cent were in favour.

“Public support is growing for extending paid parental leave. National is increasingly arrogant and out of touch and it’s time they started listening.

“Even when National wrongly inflated the cost of increasing paid parental leave to $500 million, 62 per cent of New Zealanders still said it should be funded.

“Now the Bill's cost has reduced to $78 million a year when immediate cost savings are factored in and just $12 million would be needed in the forthcoming Budget to implement the first four additional weeks Labour is proposing from April 2017.

“That’s a tiny proportion of the $1 billion of new spending the Government is planning for this Budget and does not justify a financial veto.

“Under these circumstances, a financial veto could only be used by a Government more intent on playing politics than supporting New Zealand families,” Sue Moroney says.